Women’s Center offers $tart $mart workshops featuring Roxanne Male-Brune.
As a woman continues to make about 81 cents to every dollar a man does, Roxanne Male-Brune and the Ohio University Women’s Center are hosting a workshop to help a sister out.
Male-Brune, director of grant development and projects in graduate college student services, and the Women’s Center are hosting their third-annual “$tart $mart Salary Negotiation” workshop.
The concept was created by the American Association of University Women to educate people about the wage gap, encourage women to negotiate starting salaries and learn how to do so.
Male-Brune said it’s not uncommon for women to feel unsure about negotiating a salary when being offered a job.
“What the AAUW found, is that women enter the workplace, for a few varying factors and issues, they do not negotiate a fair salary for themselves,” Male-Brune said. “So after spending four plus years (in higher education) enter the workforce and you’re unprepared to be paid fairly.”
She said one large aspect of the workshop is looking at resources to decide one’s worth — seeing what you should be asking or expecting by a job offer in the prospective field with the specific amount of experience. Male-Brune said a lot of these can be found online.
To end the workshop, Male- Brune immerses students in a real life scenario.
“The way we finish the workshop is we have a script where the participants break into two groups, one becomes the employer, one becomes the employee and then they try and negotiate,” Male-Brune said. “It’s very eye-opening. … I give both of the scripts to all participants and I encourage them to go with their friends and to play out these roles.”
For Sarah Jenkins, program coordinator of the LGBT and Women’s centers, it helped her when it came to negotiating her own salary, she was thankful to have strong women in her life to advise her on the situation. For women who may be first generation college students or do not have those types of mentors, this workshop can be immensely helpful.
“College is the time to learn this because when you get out and hopefully get your first big kid job, you will have the skills you need to negotiate for yourself,” Jenkins said.
But Male-Brune recognizes that these are not just important skills for women. College men need to learn these skills. Male- Brune has held workshops in the past for men that also talk about the wage gap, but teach them the tips and tricks about negotiation as well. She said this isn’t about widening the gap more — but trying to close it with partnership. There were two workshops last year for men.
“We want men to be cognizant that this wage gap exists and for men to be change agents,” Male-Brune said. “It can’t just be the women, it has to be the men who also recognize this issue and promote change.”
More “$tart $mart” workshops will be offered in the spring and Male-Brune hopes to team up with Career Leadership Development Center in the male workshops.
The Women’s Center will be offering two workshops. The workshops are the same, so participants only need to pick one to attend. RSVPs can be made to Male-Brune, male-bru@ohio.edu.
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